Access Denied

Stella Young at the hotel where the disabled toilet (inset) became a storeroom. Photo: Angela Wylie

ONE afternoon last month Stella Young went to the Glenferrie Hotel in Hawthorn to have a beer with some friends.

But she found the disabled bathroom stacked with cases of wine and it was impossible to get her wheelchair inside.

Earlier Ms Young had been told by staff that the toilet was out of order. Hotel manager Mark Henderson now admits that was a lie.

The cases of wine from another hotel were put in the disabled bathroom by Mr Henderson’s business partner, and had been there for 10 days.

Advertisement ”Look, it was a huge amount of stock and there was nowhere else to go,” Mr Henderson said. ”I came in to find it here. I just took too long in getting it out.”

The episode is not uncommon.

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes, who is blind, has had similar experiences. ”It’s unlawful to discriminate against people on the grounds of their disability,” Mr Innes said. ”If you have an accessible toilet and effectively block its use, then that is just the same as not providing one.”

Patricia Wilson runs excursions for the disability support service, Inclusion Melbourne. She said she stopped going to one council-run facility after it become too burdensome to clean away drug-injectors’ blood in the disabled toilet.

On another occasion at a public pool Ms Wilson had to wait with the person she was caring for, freezing outside, while two people had sex.

Ms Young said she was frustrated with the Disability Discrimination Act, which requires a formal complaint, and now prefers social media.

Rather than use the hotel’s female toilets with the door open, which she said ”isn’t very dignified”, she left, but not before tweeting an image of the crammed room, which has now been viewed almost 3000 times.

Ms Young, a comedian who edits the website Ramp Up, wrote two emails to hotel management, but it was only after she wrote on their Facebook page that she got a response.

”People with disabilities too often feel as though we don’t belong in public spaces,” she wrote. ”We’d really love your help in changing that.” Four hours later the hotel wrote back, apologising for their ”blatant ignorance [and] rash, senseless and absent-minded decision-making”. The space has since been cleared.

Kelly Vincent is a member of the South Australian Legislative Council and uses a wheelchair for her cerebral palsy. She has seen disabled toilets used for storage at an Adelaide restaurant, and elsewhere to store furniture.

”Having an accessible toilet that is unusable is maybe worse than not having one at all because it sends the message to people with disabilities that it is just a symbolic cross to bear for these business owners,” Ms Vincent said

Cab riders in New York City seeking a wheelchair-accessible taxi have recently begun hailing them virtually, using a service called Accessible Dispatch.

The service, owned by the Connecticut-based company Metro Taxi, allows riders to order one of New York’s 233 wheelchair-accessible cabs by placing a call, sending a text, using a smartphone app or going online to accessibledispatch.com.

In the past, finding a wheelchair-friendly cab amid the more than 13,000 medallion cabs “was like hitting the Powerball,” said William Scalzi, president of Metro Taxi.

Rides must start in Manhattan but may go anywhere in the five boroughs, Westchester and Nassau Counties and Newark Liberty International Airport. Riders pay the fare from pickup to destination. (The fare from the taxi’s location to passenger pickup is covered through taxi medallion revenue.) In its first three months, Accessible Dispatch has averaged 35 calls each day with typical response time of 20 minutes.

As awheelchair user and somene who will be for life trying to shop for just everyday needs let alone presents and gifts is difficult because 2in 4 stores are in accessibe.

The name for my blog disabledaccessdenied.com came from this very experience, New york uses excuses like “the buildings are old it would ruin their look” or “It is expensive enough opening a business and you want them to spend on a ramp?”

Well New York and for that matter my home country of Australia, check out what Canada has come up to solve the problem.

Ricky Gilmore was ditched by a couple he met hitchhiking when he wouldn’t share his booze. They tossed him out of their truck and left him without his wheelchair on a desolate road.

From his hospital bed Ricky shows his ripped soiled blue jeans,Ripped and dirty, they’re what the paraplegic wore as he dragged his body along a dirt road, praying help would come after he was callously dumped in the middle of the New Mexico desert without his wheelchair.

“Ah man, I’m just a big mess,” Gilmore, 49, said. “I ache and I’m just in the first stages of healing.”

Gilmore’s body is covered in cuts and bruises. His wrist is sprained and he’s being treated for acute kidney failure from dehydration.

The 49-year-old, who hasn’t been able to walk since a bad car crash years ago, says the nightmare began when he was hitchhiking.

A man and woman picked him up, and Gilmore ended up inviting them over for steaks. Later, the trio went for a ride, and when Gilmore refused to share his alcohol, the couple decided to ditch their new friend, he says.

The man yanked Gilmore – who had left his wheelchair at home – out of the car and abandoned him on a desolate stretch on a Navajo Indian reservation near Tocito, before storming off in a white truck.

“It was dark and I was shivering and the wind was blowing so I just crawled to a bush and dug right there,” he said.

“It was cold that night.”

Without food, water or a coat, Gilmore was stranded for three days. Only twice, he spotted cars. He waved, but neither stopped.

“I started dragging myself,” he said. “I did the same thing all day and I only got about two miles.”

On the third day, a man in a blue truck stopped.

“I don’t think I would have made it another night,” Gilmore said.

The man called for help and Gilmore was taken to the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock. He said doctors told him his body temperature was only 94 degrees when he was admitted.

He’s filed a report with the police but just wants to focus is rest and getting healthy.

“[I want to] go home and pray, take inventory and just get a good night sleep in my own bed and heal,” Gilmore said.

Reposted from a story By Steve Lyttle The Charlotte Observer Posted: Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012

The owner of a south Charlotte restaurant says he is “heartbroken” over an incident Sunday in which bantering between football fans got out of control, resulting in a U.S. Marine who lost both legs in Afghanistan being forced to leave the eatery with his wife, parents and friends.

Chris Neilsen, owner of the Moosehead Grill on Montford Drive, has been in contact with family members of Marine Garrett Carnes, of Mooresville, following the incident that Neilsen says “was awful.”

“I want to somehow make it right by them,” Neilsen says.

During a verbal altercation that some witnesses said almost came to blows, one patron allegedly told Carnes he was using his wheelchair “as an excuse.”

In an interview with The Observer, however, the fan said Carnes and members of his party were equally abusive. And he denied making a remark about the Marine’s wheelchair.

The incident happened after Carnes, his wife Courtney, their parents, and friends Brett and Nicole Coburn stopped at the restaurant for dinner after attending the Carolina Panthers’ game against Dallas. Several members of the party, including Garrett Carnes, were wearing Dallas Cowboys jerseys.

“Courtney was the first one out of the vehicle, and while she was getting Garrett’s wheelchair, one guy immediately started yelling at her,” said Brett Coburn, who described the man’s comments as “taunts.”

Coburn said that when the group reached the front door, the fan was waiting for them.

“He was standing at the door, and he started harassing us because of the Cowboys jerseys,” Coburn said.

He said the fan told Garrett Carnes, “Don’t use your wheelchair as a crutch.”

The fan, who did not want to give his name, gave a different account.

“Moosehead is a Panthers’ bar,” he said. “When they came, wearing the Cowboys’ jerseys, I started up on them. I asked them if they were Cowboys fans who lived in North Carolina.”

“I’m not going to fight someone in a wheelchair,” the fan said. “I said to him, ‘I’m not fighting you. Get four of your boys, and I’ll fight them.’ “

According to multiple accounts of the incident, Carnes told the patron – and others who were ridiculing the group for being Cowboys’ fans – that he was a veteran and had lost his legs in Afghanistan.

Members of the Carnes-Coburn party tried to “defend ourselves verbally,” Brett Coburn said.

“We were going back and forth,” the fan said. “Yes, it got out of control.”

The fan said one woman in the Carnes-Coburn party swore at him.

He said the fan walked toward Carnes in a threatening way, and some other patrons stepped in to break it up.

Neilsen said his employees are trained to separate possible combatants, in an effort to defuse such situations. On Sunday, staff members asked Garrett Carnes and his party to leave, while they took the fan to another area of the restaurant.

“It spiraled out of control,” Coburn says.

Courtney Carnes called police, but no charges were filed.

Neilsen said he arrived at the restaurant after the group had left and was in the parking lot, talking to police.

“I didn’t want them to leave,” he said of the Carnes-Coburn party, “but I understand why they left. I’m miserable. My heart hurts for them.”

He said the trouble was caused by people who “are not regulars” at the restaurant and added that the fan was not welcome to return.

Carnes, who is still undergoing treatment for his wounds at a Washington-area hospital, is trying to stay out of the dispute, Coburn said. Carnes’ mother, Rhonda, addressed a note to restaurant patrons on Facebook, saying, “Why didn’t any of you stand up for my son and daughter? And to think my son almost died for every single person in that bar, by defending all your freedom.”

The fan told the Observer, “He (Carnes) is a veteran, and I appreciate what he did for this country. But I don’t appreciate how abusive they were.”

Mia’s Thoughts- To the panthers fans how dare you I get loud mouth assholes like you every day who think attacking someone in a wheelchair are easy and the truth is you’re cowards you pick on us because you think were the one target in the room you can beat. I don’t care what this hero was wearing he left his god damn legs in Afghanistan and the only thing that should come out of your mouth was thank you while you were laying on your couch watching ESPN and playing soldier on your x-box this man lost his legs being a real soldier and to the restaurant owners you feeble mumblings are not enough you should invite him back invite the media and publically apologize and tell him on camera losing his legs in service of his country earned him the right wear whatever football jersey he wants.

Our right to see our candidates is important so we can decide the vote but in the weeks and days between debates who’s running the country? Does Romney think the voters are stupid? Does he not think we can remember when he says something in January only to deny he said it in February only to reverse again in March and so on and so on and…..?

We have A 90 minute debate only to have hundreds of hours of denials and accusations and TV shows that take sides and fox TV doesn’t talk with out a hand up their back that voted republican and rush Limbaugh doesn’t speak while Romney is drinking a glass of water?

It’s exhausting , as an advocate I regularly have to have sit downs with politicians to get works started and problems fixed but all I get at the moment is “sorry its election year the member is busy denying something to the press or backing someone who said something maybe next month”

So the world stops, soldiers come home, babies are born and accidents happen and the disabled pile up like collateral damage. But hey Romney lied and bayner was busy saying he didn’t, and Rom Emmanuel was shouting hell yes he did, but that’s ok a war hero just committed suicide along with 17 others while you were blowing your chests out because they couldn’t get treatment for months and benefits for years. What a shame when they needed you the only contact they could get was a robo call from a movie star, asking you to vote for them because they kiss babies and love puppies… unless of course the puppy is in a mill and the baby was born with a disability.

Cut the bullshit folks, the solution is 2,000 years old and it works back in biblical times there was a group called the Pharisees, they were the reporters of the day except they had morals they had honor and they were anonymous. You see honorable men beyond reproach were contacted the job they had was to be at every public event in the bazaar the synagogue the senate and report there was always three not four because three meant a tie breaker they would leave and push their report through a slot in a wall they had no idea who was on the other side the people on the other side were equally beyond reproach and when they left no one knew what they did so they could not be corrupted. What they did was take what the Pharisees wrote take three reports of the same event and record them for history if someone accused someone there were three independent witnesses whose record was final. Imagine when Romney lied if suddenly a screen lit up saying you lied the Pharisees recorded that on the following days you said thus and the record scrolled showing the proof and the same for Obama and for any other elected official.

Am I the only one who thinks that every time there has to be a press conference who did they leave hanging? What life changing vote had to be put off for another time?

We the people have you tube we have Google we have CNN the republicans have Fox their puppet they own it (bane capital owns clear water entertainment who has hannity and most of the conservative pundits including Limbaugh under contract and they own major shares in Fox) we need a modern day Pharisees to simply stop the bullshit.

And who knows 18 more wounded warriors just might make tomorrow, because someone actually was available to do what we damn well elected them to do it when they are meant to do it and not between photo ops.

For the school to bring this rule in the first place is to be applauded they shone a light on the life of a questioning child where there is normally only hate filled darkness. For the hate group to force them back into a place of oppression is unforgivable, if you care about the safety of our children contact the aurora illinois school district and voice your opinion.

On Monday the East Aurora, IL Board of Education unanimously adopted a groundbreaking policy hat would benefit the trans and gender non-conforming students in their district

The new policy specifically states that transgender and gender nonconforming students have the right use the restroom that corresponds to their gender-related identity that is consistently asserted at school. The student has the right to be addressed by the name they want to be called, too.
“A court-ordered name or gender change is not required, and the student needs not change his or her official records.” it’s stated in the policy
…
“In no case shall a transgender student be required to use a locker room that conflicts with the student’s gender-related identity,” the policy reads.

Didn’t take long for the transphobes of the Illinois Family Association, a Southern Poverty Law Center certified hate group to jump in and start stirring up opposition to the policy. to the point in which the East Aurora school board started wavering on doing what was right. The pushback from groups supporting the policy was just as swift.

The Trevor Project issued a statement in support of the policy.

“The Trevor Project is fully in support of maintaining the policy adopted unanimously by the East Aurora School Board on Monday,” stated Abbe Land, executive director and CEO of The Trevor Project. “Since 2010, more than 3,000 teens from Illinois have called the Trevor Lifeline in crisis, and among their top presenting problems were bullying and harassment at school. This policy will help protect the highly vulnerable transgender student population from discrimination, fear and hate that leads to bullying, increased anxiety, and elevated safety concerns on East Aurora’s campuses, and is a step that can help save lives.”

Last night the East Aurora board held another meeting. By a 4-0 vote with three board members absent, they caved to the chrisotfascists at the Illinois Family Association and rescinded the policy the board passed on Monday to boos and cries of “Shame” and “Cowards”.

The policy had support from the overflow crowd in attendance for the meeting. Out of the twenty people that spoke at the emergency meeting, 17 were in favor of keeping the passed policy. One of those persons in favor of it, Victoria Beltran, who has three children in the District’s schools had this to say.

“If you go against it, there’s no reason to support you guys,” she told the board. “We need to hear everyone in our district and not people outside our district.” Ms.Beltran was referring to the haters at the IFA, who like the cowards they are didn’t send anyone to speak at that meeting.

Parents who are in favor of the policy are considering in conjunction with several organizations lawsuits to restore the policy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those board members find themselves challenged in the next election cycle for caving in the face of bigotry and hatred.

The bigots and bullies of the IFA won this round because the East Aurora, IL school board was too cowardly to stand up for what they passed Monday. If they did so out of fear they were going to lose their seats, their actions last night to rescind the policy may be what actually costs them their seats, not supporting the trans and gender variant kids of the district .

And speaking of those trans and gender variant kids, you rescinded the policy on Spirit Day. It’s bitterly ironic that on a day in which millions of people and allies around the country show support to trans and gender variant kids against bullying aimed at them, you East Aurora school board members caved in to the bigots and bullies of the Illinois Family Association.

That’s fracked up East Aurora school board, and shame on y’all for not being tough minded enough to stand up for the trans and gender variant kids in your district

Yesterday I had a bloody amazing day I slept late left early had lunch at the great Brooklyn vegan eatery V then I went to Brooklyn boulders rock climbing gym and climbed solo on the self belaying walls from 3pm till 6pm when Ella got there then we climbed together the day was perfect SO FAR.

Then we decided to go to a restaurant we had been too many times before, safe we thought? we ordered the vegan burger it came with the outside burnt the inside cold it fell apart and couldn’t be picked up like a normal burger then the staff laughed at us for complaining, so we left.

As we rolled up 4th ave from degraw to the subway elevator at Atlantic pacific, we got to the intersection of one of the side streets the crossing light said walk . As we went to cross a jacked up blinged out metallic painted range rover with huge chrome rims pulled up fast, it was blocking the cross walk. The occupants were all club dressed Latino women all dancing to rap music in their seats, and the driver was illegally on her cell phone. I politely said “excuse me miss I can’t cross can you back up?” she exhaustedly looked sideways still on the phone and screamed while gesturing out the window” NO why don’t you walk around” walk around? So she is inconsiderate blind and stupid she is looking down at my wheelchair yelling for me to walk?

She screamed at me in some Latino dialect pointing at the road all four other women screamed at me I heard “puta” every second word. I was forced with Ella playing traffic cop on fourth st Brooklyn at 8 pm on a Thursday night with heavy traffic whizzing past me To roll along the road in the the car lane in traffic rolling around her while being abused in Spanish.

For the next five blocks they shadowed us in the car, constantly driving up beside us the going around the block so they could come up behind us to scream again. With the high number of shooting murders in Brooklyn in the last year many of them drive by’s Ella and I were in serious fear for our lives. We breathed a sigh of relief when we made the MTA elevator, but were frightened every second on the train platform until we finally were on the Q train to Queens borough plaza.

Before you say “mia it was a one of event” read my blog, this kind of “I’ll park where I want stop where I want fuck you” attitude happens regularly. Just this Sunday a government car with a flashing light on its dash parked for two hours while in church blocking the ramp at a corner using their official dashboard paper to break the law.

We have been rammed by bangers in SUVs’ because they were blocking the cross walk but I got” too close to their”ride” we have been threatened chased and much worse all because they were wrong they were breaking the law and to go around would put me in a wheelchair in a lane of peak hour traffic so I politely ask”backup”.

The stop sign also has a white line it is normally a car length back from the cross walk and that is to keep the cross walk clear and safe. Coincidentally every person who has almost hit us as they sail into a screeching stop blocking a crosswalk, was talking on a cell phone while carrying on to screaming loud music.

I can’t get up and walk around but you can learn to drive and PUT THE DAMN CELL PHONE DOWN WHILE YOU DRIVE. Stop signs are not a polite suggestion they are the law,And crosswalks are not parking spaces for you to “just dash in anywhere” and cell phones are banned while driving ,it’s law again not a lifestyle suggestion more a life saving law.

People will flame this story and say I’m racist, but to the very last offender they were either African American or Latino all dressed gang style all listening to rap and all driving large unnecessary off-road vehicles in the city and all had no respect for the rules off the road or anyone else on them. Do you sense the “the world owes me everything attitude?” I do. The world owes you nothing except to take away your phone your ride, and until you take away the attitude and the stupidity make you damn well walk!

As anyone else with wheels under their asses knows rolling our great nations sidewalks is hard enough when their cracked or broken, but what makes it worse is getting to the side street to find no down or up ramp or even worse a car parked across it illegally what do you do?

Well I have been known to read the riot act to the driver in anyone of a dozen languages but of late I have been trying really hard, (honest tsultrim) to keep my Buddhist vow of non violence.

Well this Sunday it was my favorite time of the week, it was poppa time? What time you say? poppa time it is when Ella (she who must be obeyed) and I roll to her father’s place, we sit we talk in Russian and he remembers. Sometimes we cry when he remembers momma his late wife, and he asks if Ella is looking after me properly so I tease and say no she is terrible and we laugh, it is the bright light in my week.

To get to poppas we have to roll ½ a block to parsons boulevard then turn left roll down 6 blocks( that’s 6 side streets to cross ) and turn right 7 blocks (7 more side streets ) to Kissena boulevard and then 1 more block and were there .

That’s 15 street crossings, if the local council remembered and didn’t slack off there should be 15 down ramps and 15 up ramps there never is. The only thing worse than no ramp or a broken ramp is when thoughtless individuals park on the cross walk and slack uncaring ticket writers do nothing and I am left on a 12 inch high curb unable to cross unless I roll over the top of the car.

Well not only did this happen it happened when a member of a Zen Buddhist temple (in name only the place is a sham) pulled up in a government car, placed his “BROOKLYN BRIDGE MAINTENANCE CONTRACTOR ON OFFICIAL BUSINESS “sign in the window and paced his huge amber flashing light on the dash and parked blocking the cross walk and 8/10ths of the down ramp (see below)

When I spoke to one of the senior members of the temple I got “who are you a cop?” I looked and he was parking in front of a fire hydrant chatting to a friend parking in a bus stop and they were locking up and going inside to worship, FYI the bus stop is the only one where wheelchairs can load on in the vicinity if the bus can’t pull up to the curb the wheelie can’t get on but I digress.

We went to poppas andwere there an hour then we did some and had lunch and rolled back and they were all still illegally parked but the service was over they all were chatting and didn’t move even when asked? ONLY IN AMERICA.

Is it the Americans with disabilities act or the lets act to disable Americans act? Advocacy only works if someone down the chain actually stops and cares.

Parking in the disabled park is thoughtless because blocking the ramp blocks my right to continue on with my day, and parking in the bus stop means someone in a wheelchair loses a job because their boss is sick of them being late when they leave home with plenty of time but you think your right to a park outweighs their right to employment.

When I was born I was diagnosed as having febrile convulsions until two then epilepsy, it was always epilepsy but there is a problem doctors have calling it a seizure disorder until children are at least two. My first medication was Phenobarbital liquid through a teat pipette. Then at 4 I started having the same meds in tablet form, then at 6 they changed it to primodone also called mycellin.

During these early years it seemed as if the doctors were using me and every other epileptic child as crash test dummies for any hew medicine on the market, there were dozens of others but these were the main ones. I spent months in and out of hospitals I became such a regular in one hospital they stopped taking my drawings down and I had the same bed every time.

As I got older they changed the primodone to epilim then epilim to tegretol then back to the epilim, then at 17 they thought I was cured so I was weaned off my meds. At 28 I had a serious car crash with closed head injuries and the “let’s use the eppo as a lab rat” program stared all over again. When they use you as a lab rat you spend a lot of time in a fog, everything sounds like it is coming from the next room and voices sound like their coming through a wall so you get treated like you’re retarded.

Doctors tell you “this is the anti convulsant for you” when you’re young you don’t get a choice but as I got older I learned to ask questions, ” what success rate have you had with it? ” how long has it been on the market” “what are the side effects” does it have contra indications I should know about?”.

The upside of being proactive is you have a healthier life, the down side is neuro’s who work their practice like a pill mill letting drug companies pay for their holidays and their electronic office equipment brand you a trouble maker and not only drop you as a patient but they black ball you with others.

Then you have medico’s who discover you need supplements and tell you a certain brand is the only one they recommend, and you no sooner go on it and get your body used to it then the company discontinues it ?.

I ‘m a chef, if I am famous for specializing in a certain ethic food and I make my living and stake my reputation on it, I source out ingredients that not only do the job but I am also guaranteed an ongoing reliable supply. There is nothing worse than being famous for say black truffles, only to suddenly not have a supply because you didn’t do your homework.

Every time you add a foreign body into your body there are side effects, even if it is a necessary life saving drug t is in some way bad for you. Every drug or supplement even if serving a purpose for your health and safety has a different effect even from others designed to do the same thing or control the same illness. Many controlling medicines work basically the same as drug addiction, they build up levels in your body until they replace the job of a natural organ or gland or bodily function and take over that function because that part of the body has ceased working properly thus causing the ailment.

Every time you stop one or replace it with another you temporarily put the body in freefall, because the drug has been doing the job of your body for so long the natural function either doesn’t kick back In at all or takes a longer time therefore making your symptoms zoom out of control for however long the new drug takes to kick in.

Last week my pharmacy lost a prescription of my anti convulsant and they argued all Thursday and Friday, I ran out Thursday. They decided I had to wait until after the weekend. Well Monday was Columbus day so it was Tuesday before I went back on my meds after 5 and a half days unmedicated. By the time the screw up was sorted out I had been spasming enduring limb and facial tics for 48 hours, and until the tegretol once again establishes controlling levels I will be house bound unable to use my wheelchair shaking and seizing. Over the weekend I had full blown seizures at a rate higher than normal because of the screw up.

Hey doc, and you behind the pharmacy counter, we trust you to keep us living and above ground and to prescribe and keep a controlling supply of the right drug and supplement not the one right now, not the one that gets you and the family a free trip to Maui the one right for me. Every time you say “no worries we’ll fix it Monday” my life stops until you do.